Review Summary: Night owls and daydreamers alike are presented with a record to suit their moods.
Of all the diverse post-rock, ambient and other Hammocks and Explosions In The Sky out there, there aren’t a lot that combine the aforementioned genres in a compelling way. Mostly it is one or the other. In one possible way, a mixture of the two would involve the use of guitars as the main creators of melodic lines and several sound effects and maybe some reverb to back that up.
Of course this is my interpretation, and one could raise that it should be the other way around.
To be clear, Aurore Rien falls entirely under my view. With
Sedative For The Celestial Blue, I present you a record that is able to change my perception of the ongoing in a blink, if I let it to.
Well, writing about matters that alter your perception is never easy, hence why I’m typing this with the curtains closed. A pitiful fact is that records like these often get overlooked or labeled as boring or even generic. When in fact, it only requires an extra look over the shoulder to see and appreciate its understated beauty. Like the girl in your circle of friends whom you’ve never deemed as a dreamgirl, until you develop the ability to look past the shallow beauty of others and go beyond that.
Maybe this is a weakness, more so than a merit, the fact that I can’t immediately appreciate the beauty that lies deeper. And the ones who can, they are truly blessed. For that they don’t require works of art to scream their value to make themselves notable.
In my case, some records just need a certain mood to be fully appreciated, I would even go further as to think these records were created solely for that lethargic, hazy-eyed type of mood. With Aurore Rien literally meaning ‘Daytime Nothing’ it appears so.
The kind where you feel you’re lazy but you’re actually not. You’re just waiting for something to happen in your monotone daily life.
And this, people, this is where the ambient sounds of Aurore Rien come in.
The concept they swear by is like a rock-band in the late night hours, when most of their energy is already gone as is their public. Yet they are still capable of creating beautiful sounds, only their fingers can’t uphold the tempo as they used to. So they choose to stretch these notes.
Every single note runs the thing for all it’s worth, the band members are never in a hurry to let their music go somewhere. They have an eye for the qualities they can extract from their instruments. When their drummer feels like it he will add some extra tempo in his wrists but never go all-in.
That is the signal to raise the tempo, but only slightly so. The guitars playing catch-up tighten a little and the bass goes along. Often they’d throw in a sound effect or two, which I’m not an expert in, but are best to describe as those ‘noises’ that dwell close in your environment but somehow you always seem to forget about them. Like a television set that slightly hums or a breeze that partly slips under your door.
It sure has its desired effect, to even ooze the music further in your consciousness (or subconsciousness?) than it already has.
It should be noted that most of the material that is to be found here is completely void of vocal work, as it is common in the genre of post-rock or ambient electronica. While spoken word sections are not so atypical there are nevertheless vocal parts in the quaint meaning of the term.
If I’m not mistaken these vocals are delivered by Chris Schafer (who went on to form
Lights Out Asia) and his voice is nothing less than angelical.
Ever so clear, pure and in tune. His delivery only adds to the experience, instead of the music concealing vocal imperfections. Present on tracks
Between The View and You and
Will You Write Too.., these become the tracks that lift the record to a higher level.
But perhaps that is too shallow of an ending note.
